Riding

Of all the times not to have the camera handy . . . We are in Steamboat now, enjoying some early wintery weather. Coming over Rabbit Ears Pass, there was a nice 1/2" layer of slush on the road with the threat of more snow in the forecast. Fortunately it sounds like Denver is supposed to be hit harder than Steamboat, but anyways.

We headed up to Saddleback Ranch this morning to go for a ride over some hills, through some woods, down some hills, hunting all the while for some elk who may or may not be bugling at the time. We only saw one, but had a good time checking out the scenery and getting a feel for our horses Johnny and Chelsea. They were about as tame as couches, but sitting on a thousand pounds of animal always makes me wonder. I got a few pictures through Johnny's ears of Sarah riding, but I will have to wait until I have the cord handy to upload them. Not having had enough, we came back to our rental place to get in a mountain bike ride before the weather gets worse. I haven't ridden a mountain bike for a few years now, with the lone exception being the cross race last year. We forgot the camera which is too bad because the scenery was pretty cool even just riding on the ski hill. We were treated to some snow near the top of the hill. It was cool to ride through, especially since it was warm enough that I had to shed my arm warmers.

Vacationing is tough, I am not sure what to do this afternoon. Do we enjoy and extended cocktail hour, looking out the window at the clouds rolling in or do we head over to the hot springs for a dip as the sun sets and the snow falls? Decisions, decisions . . .

Going Home

Traveling with Deb has some serious advantages. On our whirlwind trip home for Rosh Hashanah, she was able to swing first class tickets on Delta using her 2.2 billion frequent flier miles . . . much better than cattle car for sure. Unfortunately our flight from Denver was at 6:15 which meant leaving my house at 4:15 to pick her up and get to the airport.

We had a very delicious but nontraditional dinner on the first night of the holiday, opting for fried chicken and mashed potatoes since Catherine was around and willing to fry up some chicken for us. It has been years since I've had Catherine's fried chicken which used to be a fairly regular staple growing up. Catherine has been in our family longer than I have and it was nice to see her after so many years. Nothing too much has changed on the home front except for the scenery in Chapel Hill. The independent paper had an article about the current state of Franklin Street, lamenting the changes over the years. I am surprised it has taken so long for them to make mention of it since what was once the local, hip, unique hub of downtown Chapel Hill has become a relatively bland dump, muddied by chain banality. There are various institutions whose disappearance will mark my point of no returning to Chapel Hill.

I was able to catch up with a few friends before ditching town Sunday morning. It was nice to catch up with Jonathan and Sally who I hadn't seen in a year or so. Jonathan is trying to talk me into joining the boat trip to the BVIs, but I'm hoping to be going to New Zealand in November for Tour of Southland instead. As soon as I got home, it was time to pack again, this time to head up to Steamboat Springs for a vacation from my oh so hard, unemployed lifestyle.

Catching Up

I typed this one up on the train on the way back to Germany, but never got around to posting:

So that's the season. Today's race unfolded a bit differently than expected, the break went on the first lap and with 26 Italians in the field and a couple of them up the road, there was not a whole lot of activity in the group when it came to bringing the break back. Mike made an effort to get across, but got chased. As the pace surged and slowed heading towards Schwendt the second time, I attacked and got
clear with a couple guys and Mike bridged up at the top of the hill. Unfortunately we had an Italian in the group who stopped working pretty quickly so I let a gap open and Mike rolled up the road. The Italian and I were caught after a little bit and a few more guys bridged to Mike. At that point I sat on thinking there were only two groups up the road, the group that went clear on the first lap and
Mike's group. Evidently not per the results. On the last lap I did little to nothing, letting everybody else cover the attacks. Going into the closing 10km, I stayed patient and waited until there was a lull just before the 2km to go sign. I jumped from the back of the group and made it up the right side before the opening disappeared and didn't look back. Great move, I finally raced decently from my group, unfortunately, there were a total of 27 riders already across the line. Mike's group made it within 30 seconds of the leaders before the Italians stopped working, much like my experience last year. I stuck around for results but headed out when I found out I was well outside the prizes. I am scribbling this standing in the vestibule of the train heading to Munich. As usual it is full and there is no
where for the bike box except for close to the door. I thought about heading to Garmisch tomorrow, but I am not sure I am up for the travel, just to see another pretty mountain town. I am pretty tired at this point, nothing like the let down feeling you get at the end of a long season, with so much build up to a set of races. It has been agood season personally and for the team. We have had some good racesand some strong results. What next?

In Munich, I did a lot of wandering around, venturing from the Marienplatz to the far side of the lake in the Englisher Garten for a beer at the beer garden before wandering back through the park. I hadn't been to the top of the Frauenkirche in a bunch of years and it was clear out so I broke out the old student ID and got my discounted entry. It also worked the next day when I met Mike, Nancy, and Samantha at the zoo. Mike Olheiser and his brother were in Munich for the day prior to the flight out, so we met for some beers and fine German cuisine and one last hurrah before heading to the airport for another long day of travel.

Unfortunately I got sick on the way home and the combination of jet lag and a head cold didn't make for a comfortable homecoming. Fortunately I don't have a job anymore, so I had plenty of time to kick back and recover, spending as much time on the couch as needed. The last couple of weeks since getting back have been pretty productive with the job searching, the hanging out, the working on the backyard. I'll quit being a slacker and get back to the regular blog posting . . .